Vampire in Geek's Clothing (Psy-Vamp Book 6)

by Cassandra Lawson

  “You don’t know that she ran,” he reminded Drew.

  “You’re right,” Drew agreed. “There’s always a chance she ditched the kid and returned to her old life, except she didn’t want that life. She didn’t tell me what she was trying to avoid, but she was going to run even if she hadn’t gotten pregnant.”

  “What do you know about her?” Isaiah asked.

  “Her name is Molly; and she lived in Seattle,” Drew told him. “She also has a sweet ass—the kind you could really hold on to while fucking her. She could have stood to gain forty pounds or so. Not gonna lie. I’m getting hard just thinking about what Molly’s ass would have looked like with a little more padding. Damn! I’ll bet her ass filled out more after having the kid. That happens with some chicks, and if her ass got any finer, I might explode just from seeing it.”

  Isaiah held up a hand to stop him. “I get the point.”

  “I don’t think you do,” Drew insisted. “With those extra forty pounds, I might be willing to drop to my knees and worship her ass.”

  “Great,” Isaiah grumbled. “I’ll just plug that into my computer now, and I’m sure we’ll have her identity in a minute. Listen, there are many women named Molly in Seattle, and none of the databases I use have ass profiles.”

  “No need to be an asshole,” Drew told him. “I’ll try to think of something else, but honestly, she didn’t tell me much.”

  Isaiah shut down his computer and grabbed his phone. “Get me more, and I’ll see what I can find. For now, I’m going to grab a slice of pizza.”

  Drew laughed. “Say hi to the barista babe for me! At the very least, try to get some pictures. I’m dying to see the chick who’s turned you into a stalker.”

  Chapter Five

  Phoenix found that most days the shop was dead after three, but today had been an exception, proving this was not her day. Brian was skittish enough, but he’d be climbing the walls if she got there any later. Finding a witch capable of weaving this type of spell into a tattoo hadn’t been the tricky part—at least not in this area. For whatever reason, witches gravitated to this area, and most were trained to cast this type of spell since hunters paid good money for it when they retired. That was a carryover from the old days when hunters and vampires had killed each other on sight. Naturally, hunters hadn’t wanted to have to watch their backs constantly after retirement. Even though vampires couldn’t easily recognize hunters, being around a vampire without having any sort of reaction to their presence could be difficult for hunters. Plus, other hunters could give away your presence if they recognized what you were. Basically, the tattoo did more than cover the hunter’s mark; it made them invisible to other hunters and muted their powers. What she’d needed from a witch was a little more complicated because she wasn’t a retired hunter, just one in hiding.

  Her first ride on a BART train into the city had been the one to set everything in motion. Brian had taken a seat beside her and asked if she was okay. Apparently, she wasn’t very good at pretending everything was fine. It had been Brian who’d done her spelled tattoo and gotten her a job that paid under the table. He’d even hooked her up with a fake ID and a lead on an apartment that would take her with no credit check. That beat sleeping in her car, which is what she’d been doing her first month on the run.

  Brian had been a good friend to her, and that’s why she’d ended up revealing more than she should have about her true identity. He was the only person who knew why she’d really run from Seattle, and she was kicking herself now, knowing that knowledge might put him in even more danger.

  Rushing down the street, Phoenix hurried into the BART station just in time to catch a train heading toward Millbrae, glad to be traveling the opposite direction of most commuters. Of course, she’d be smashed in between them later, after her meeting with Brian. After that meeting, she’d probably need to head home to pack her stuff and get the hell out of this area.

  Exiting at the 24th and Mission station, she ran up the stairs to the street. One thing she’d noticed in her four years of taking BART was that the escalators were frequently broken. Hurrying down the street, she rushed into Brian’s shop. Meeting here, when Hayden might have found her, was probably stupid, but she had no choice. Brian was her friend, and she owed him too much to just take off. She already knew, if she refused to meet Brian, he’d go to her.

  Brian was bent over a table sketching when she walked in, and he didn’t react to her entrance at first.

  “You’re late,” he accused without looking up. Brian had a spell that caused a tingling sensation on the back of his neck whenever the shop door opened.

  “I had trouble getting people out of the coffee shop at closing today,” she explained without removing her hoodie. It was best to keep her face hidden.

  “It’s not a good idea for you to be walking around out here at night with hunters on your ass,” Brian remarked, finally standing to his full five-foot-two inches. Having a different father than Mitch, the two looked nothing alike. His long black hair was pulled back from his face, revealing his wide forehead, large nose, and nearly black eyes.

  “I’m really sorry they came after you,” she told him, fighting back tears.

  Brian snorted. “Coming after me isn’t the problem. It’s my family I’m worried about. They weren’t in the picture when I found you, so I didn’t have much to lose. Now, there’s a weapon they can use against me. I wanted to let you know in person that I’m taking off before things get too bad around here.”

  “That’s a smart plan,” she agreed, hating herself for forcing her friend to run. Brian still hadn’t given her a good reason why he needed to see her in person, but she figured he’d get to that.

  “You should take off, too,” he told her. “I’m pretty sure those assholes who came by here believed me when I told them I’d never seen you, but why risk it?”

  She nodded. “You’re right. It’s about time for me to leave this area. I never expected to be here this long.”

  “We have a safe place, and you can come with us,” he offered.

  “No,” she insisted. “If I go with you, then you’ll just be in more danger.”

  At this point, she had no clue where she was going next. She needed to take a few days to come up with a plan. Brian and Mitch were the only ones who knew her true identity, so she should be safe here a little longer. Brian wouldn’t betray her, and she was pretty sure Mitch wouldn’t once his brother was safely out of the area.

  “I heard from some other witches that these hunters are on the other side of the bay trying to figure out if any of the witches helped you. We have enough witches around to keep them busy for weeks. You might even get lucky, and they’ll figure you aren’t here and move on, but I don’t think you should risk it. Go someplace where there aren’t many witches. I was an idiot for convincing you to stay here, assuming it would be harder to find you in a big city.”

  “This isn’t your fault, Brian,” she assured him. “This whole situation is totally fucked up!”

  “I won’t argue about how fucked up this is,” Brian said.

  “What do they look like?” she asked.

  “There were three of them,” Brian began. “Two big guys with dark hair. Both kept their sunglasses on the entire time, probably trying to intimidate me. The third guy did all the talking. That one was a little under six feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes. He had a pretty look to him, but he’s the one who scared me the most. The guy seemed unstable. They said their names were John, Dave, and Mike, but I think they were lying. I almost forgot. The blond hunter has an eye-twitch when he’s angry.”

  The eye twitch, Phoenix was all too familiar with.

  “The blonde guy’s name is Hayden, and he’s not a hunter, but that doesn’t mean he’s not incredibly dangerous.”

  “You say he’s not a hunter?” Brian seemed surprised.

  “Yes, but don’t let that out or he’ll know I’ve been in contact with the witches in this area, which will make
him more dangerous to the witches he’s questioning. Did they say they were hunters? Or, did you just assume they were hunters because they’re looking for me?”

  “The blond said they were hunters, and I saw the mark on one of them,” Brian confirmed. “What I don’t get is why hunters would be letting the blond guy do all the talking. Hunters have always struck me as arrogant. No offense,” he added as an afterthought.

  “None taken. I’m well aware of how arrogant hunters can be,” she assured him. “The whole thing doesn’t make any sense. I get why Hayden would be looking for me, and I get why hunters from Seattle would be looking for me, but they are far from the same reasons.”

  The hunters weren’t likely to want her dead just for refusing to train as a hunter. They’d made some ugly threats, but none had involved violence. Hayden was another story; he wanted to hurt her, possibly kill her.

  “I get the hunters looking for you, but why is the other guy after you?” Brian asked.

  “He thinks I betrayed him, betrayed our kind.” Phoenix thought for a moment. “Actually, I don’t think he cares if I betrayed our kind.”

  “Did you kill anyone?” Brian asked.

  She shook her head. “The only people hurt by my actions were my parents. They had to leave everything behind because of me.” That was only partly true, but there was no way she could tell Brian certain parts of the story. It wasn’t her story to tell, and it involved the one truly innocent person in all of this, the one she’d die to protect.

  Brian moved forward and hugged her. “I’m going to do some work on your ink before you leave today, just to make sure you’re well-hidden until you can find another witch to help you.”

  “Thanks, Brian.” The spell would lose power over time, so she’d need to find another witch to work on it if she planned to remain hidden. Some days, she wondered if it was time to just face her destiny—either with the hunters back home or with Hayden. Either way, she’d hate the outcome. The only reason she hesitated was that one innocent who might be hurt if she let something slip.

  Brian put up the sign to let people know he was working on a tattoo, which he always did when he was in the shop without an assistant. Then he locked up and led her into the back room.

  Hopefully, helping her wouldn’t get Brian killed.

  Chapter Six

  Isaiah had no idea what Nikki was doing in the tattoo parlor, but some insane part of his brain told him to go drag her out of there—especially when that asshole put his arms around her. Of course, he knew how crazy that reaction was. He barely knew the woman, and he certainly didn’t have any claim on her. There was also the fact that he’d heard enough of her conversation earlier to know she wasn’t here to meet a boyfriend. The sign on the door claimed he was with a client and would reopen in an hour, but that didn’t make Isaiah feel any better.

  There was a strong possibility it was a genetic flaw he shared with the other men in his family that had him considering storming in and carrying Nikki off. That had him wondering if they all possessed some stalker/kidnapper gene. Whatever the cause, he tamped down the impulse, figuring he’d attract way too much attention if he hopped on a BART train with Nikki over his shoulder.

  Over an hour later, Nikki slipped out of the tattoo parlor with her hoodie pulled over her face. She didn’t look around nervously, but he caught the way she checked out her surroundings, like she was looking for someone.

  Careful to remain in the shadows, he followed her back to the BART station, and then all the way to the parking garage by the coffee shop. Stalking her wasn’t easy; Nikki was pretty observant. There had been a couple of times when he’d been sure she suspected someone was following her, but she’d relaxed when he’d fallen back. Not until she was safely in her car and on the way out of the parking garage, did he finally make his way to his own car.

  When his phone rang, he almost let it go to voicemail after seeing it was Drew calling, but he figured that would make it more likely Drew would harass him when he got home and wanted to focus on researching the guy at the tattoo parlor. That guy had something to do with the trouble Nikki was in, and Isaiah planned to find out his connection.

  With a sigh, he answered his phone.

  “What do you want?” he asked.

  Drew chuckled. “Come on, cuz. Don’t be grumpy with me.”

  “Grumpy?” Isaiah huffed. “I’m being pretty cheerful, considering I’m on the phone with you.”

  “You wound me,” Drew drawled.

  “In every dream I have about you,” Isaiah muttered.

  “I don’t blame you for dreaming about me,” Drew assured him. “You can’t help dreaming about this perfection. Sorry to tell you this, but even if we weren’t cousins, I’m not into guys.”

  “Can we get on with the reason for this call?” Isaiah asked impatiently.

  “Just wanted to find out how the stalking went,” Drew replied cheerfully. “Since you aren’t too busy banging the barista babe to answer your phone, I guess it didn’t go very well.”

  “That’s not why I was stalking her,” Isaiah argued, figuring there was no point denying he was stalking the woman. There’s no other word for it when you follow someone that far, keeping in the shadows. If his car had been parked close to hers, he might have followed her home. He had every intention of finding out where she lived, so he’d definitely crossed the line between concerned and creepy. “Damn, I really am as bad as the rest of you.”

  “Why were you following her?” Drew asked, sounding genuinely concerned, which took Isaiah by surprise. Drew wasn’t known for thinking about the well-being of others. His hesitation was not missed by Drew, who laughed. “Yeah, I don’t usually care about anyone. Just humor me while I actually give a fuck. I’m sure the moment will pass soon.”

  “I think she might be in some kind of trouble,” Isaiah explained, as he put the call on speaker and started up the car. The bridge traffic was going to be a nightmare, which was really annoying when he was so anxious to get home and start researching.

  Drew remained quiet for a moment. “What kind of trouble?” he asked.

  Isaiah let out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know. You heard the call earlier. That guy just burst into the coffee shop insisting she go with him. If I hadn’t intervened, he might have dragged her out of there.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t use compulsion to get him to leave,” Drew mused. “You aren’t usually the hands on type.”

  “I tried, but it didn’t work on him.” Drew was right about his actions being out of character. Isaiah could count on one hand the number of times he’d resorted to violence in his life. At nearly two-hundred years old, that said a lot.

  “Is it just me, or have we run into a lot of psychic humans in the last few years?” Drew asked. “I remember how everyone got all excited about Hannah being psychic. Now we’ve got psychic cousins, and even that asshole cop. Where were they all hiding?” Drew clearly didn’t want an answer to his question since he didn’t wait for a reply. “So, finish telling me about stalking the barista babe. Hey! You don’t have a picture of her you could send me, do you?”

  “No, why?” Isaiah suspected he’d regret asking that question as soon as the words left his mouth.

  “All this talk about stalking is getting me kind of horny, and I thought it might help with the fantasy if I had a visual. If you don’t have a picture, that’s okay. Just describe her to me.”

  It said something about his life that what Drew said didn’t shock him. “Do not jack off while you are on the phone with me.”

  “I wasn’t planning to,” Drew assured him, before adding, “I was going to wait until we got off the phone. Trust me. I’ll keep my hands off my dick until we hang up.”

  “If you can’t stop talking about your dick, I’m hanging up now,” Isaiah warned.

  “Fine,” Drew relented. “Finish telling me about the barista babe’s problems. Let’s jump to what happened tonight.”

  “I followed her to so
me tattoo parlor, and she did her best to make sure no one recognized her when she walked there and back. I followed her back to her car, but I couldn’t make it to my car in time to follow her from there. I still don’t know what’s going on with her, but I know she’s in some kind of trouble.”

  “I’m surprised you couldn’t find out what’s going on with her on your computer already.”

  Isaiah released a frustrated breath. “I tried, but I can’t find anything on her. The coffee shop is obviously paying her under the table, and she’s never offered up her last name when we’ve talked.”

  “The police could be after her,” Drew suggested. “You might be able to get Ivy’s cop friend to look into her for you.”

  “No,” Isaiah said automatically. For all he knew, she could be a dangerous killer, but something told him that wasn’t the case. Even if she was wanted by the police, he wasn’t inclined to help them find her.

  “You wanna know what I think you should do?” Drew asked.

  “Definitely not,” Isaiah replied with a bark of laughter.

  “See? This is the kind of shit that wounds me,” Drew told him.

  Isaiah’s lips lifted in a hint of a smile. “Wounding you always sounds like a good idea. If I let you tell me what you think I should do, will you get off the phone so I can think?”

  “Sure thing,” Drew agreed.

  “Then tell me what you think I should do,” Isaiah relented.

  “You should fuck her so good she’ll stay in your bed and tell you all her secrets,” Drew advised, and that painted some very vivid images of Nikki tied to his bed while he licked every inch of her body.

  “I take it by your silence that you like my suggestion,” Drew added smugly. “Should I go raid Justin and Caitlin’s room for some bondage shit so you can keep her tied to your bed?”

  “No one said anything about tying her to my bed,” Isaiah insisted.

  Drew chuckled. “Listen, cuz, you don’t have to lie to me. You must have a kinky side in there somewhere. Maybe you should turn her over your knee and spank her for worrying you like a bad girl. Does the barista babe have a nice ass?” When Isaiah didn’t answer, Drew continued. “Bet she does, and I’ll bet you’d like to see that sweet ass wiggling around while she’s draped across your lap.”